What strikes me is that Singh is giving Notley the middle finger. The fact that he promises to move to Burnaby -- when everyone surely knows he will "live" in Ottawa most of the year. He's pretending that Burnaby has won his heart.

Quote:

Singh argued that some of Burnaby’s issues — housing affordability, health care and the controversial $9.3-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — were also national issues.

Said Singh: “We are going to talk about the issues that matter to people. And we are going use that platform I have as a leader to talk about housing, to talk about pharmacare, to talk about health care … (and) that we don’t need to be investing billions of dollars in a 65-year-old leaky pipeline. We need to be investing in clean-energy jobs today and tomorrow.”

He didn't have to mention the pipeline or to characterize it in that way. He is going to the Left of where Notley can go. This is intriguing. (Actually, BC has lots of hydro-electric power -- about as clean energy as you can get on a large scale.)

However the NDP is slated to have massive losses in Quebec come the next Federal Election;

Its very possible we may not see an NDP MP elected till we get to Ontario moving East from the Atlantic Provinces.

They need to add seats somewhere to avoid a massive loss in caucus;
A large part of Singh's appear was to give the NDP a breakthrough in Peel Region a region where majorities are born and has historically been a black-hole for the NDP support wise .

Running in a riding you already have across the country from your personal base when you were elected to grow the party seems like the exact opposite of what he should be doing.

Is Singh simply politically inept or is he simply getting ahead of the "parachute candidate" talk that will chase him in Burnaby with plans to run in Brampton anyway?

There is no logical reason to potentially walk away from seats in Ontario to win a by-election in BC in a riding you should be able to retain anyway.

However the NDP is slated to have massive losses in Quebec come the next Federal Election;

Its very possible we may not see an NDP MP elected till we get to Ontario moving East from the Atlantic Provinces.

They need to add seats somewhere to avoid a massive loss in caucus;
A large part of Singh's appear was to give the NDP a breakthrough in Peel Region a region where majorities are born and has historically been a black-hole for the NDP support wise .

Running in a riding you already have across the country from your personal base when you were elected to grow the party seems like the exact opposite of what he should be doing.

Is Singh simply politically inept or is he simply getting ahead of the "parachute candidate" talk that will chase him in Burnaby with plans to run in Brampton anyway?

There is no logical reason to potentially walk away from seats in Ontario to win a by-election in BC in a riding you should be able to retain anyway.

Singh running in Burnaby South and never running in Ontario does not make a lot of sense .

as he was elected leader on the basis he was going to grow the party in new constituencies , places like suburban Ontario

of the open or soon to be open ridings , I always personally though Hamilton centre made the most sense . its not that far geographically from Brampton , the current mp David Christopherson is retiring anyways and its the home riding of Andrea Horwath a close ally of Singh

he'd of been virtually certain to have won a by election there as the riding has voted solidly ndp since 2004 , its one of there safest seats in Ontario and surely would of voted for an ndp leader over a lower profile liberal candidate

I think he would feel 'foreign' and insecure in Christopherson's old riding -- Ian Dean's old riding as well. Steelworkers. He seems to be seeking a riding where lots of people from the sub-continent live. (I don't say this to disparage Jagmeet or the Canadians who will vote for or against hm. It just seems to me to be a fact.)

You see the same thing in his timidity in dealing with the Moore woman episodes. He is likely very conventional in his own family life and expects to stay that way. No doubt his wife is perfectly content with that. But when it comes to (gulp) transexual rights, he's looks to see which way the wind is blowing, rather than defining the situation early. He can't trust his instincts.

The unfortunate thing is that Hamilton Centre (I suspect) is old-line NDP, by which I mean a party who spoke up for the honest working class ... and who were pragmatic rather than ideological. Singh could be a fit -- but there would be a process involved. Time in the riding. Rubber chicken at the Holiday Inn, talking to the Rotarians ... or the Legion ... cutting ribbons at the opening of the new mall ... all of that.

When they had originally declined to run, I wondered to myself how long the GPC was prepared to allow their party to be an Elizabeth May vanity project with no interest in actually contending in elections.

Its an progressive riding, its an urban riding, and its in BC
This is about as much of a lob down the center of the plate as it gets for the Greens.

You attract a competent candidate, which shouldn't be a challenge given the strength of the BC Greens and you go for it. Even if you lose, you show your supporters that you actually have an interest growing the message.

There is no reason why the Greens shouldn't go hard for this riding;

Their national support was nearly 7% in 2008, they have dropped in every election since and secured 3.45% in 2015.

To put that into perspective Jim Harris (the last Green Leader) secured 4.48% in 2006 and 4.29% in 2004.

They need something to help them out of this funk.

The party is in a downward trajectory off their peak, they have no interest in replacing their leader, and till recently they didn't plan to run someone in a riding in a Province their leader was elected in and their Province counterparts are part of the government coalition in a progressive riding?

Thank goodness someone gave their head a shake.

Last edited by cosmostein on Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

( looks like the big green announcement in Burnaby South was not a candidate but rather no candidate at all , looks like they are sitting it out after all )

Greens won't run candidate in Burnaby South as 'leader's courtesy' to Singh: May

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, August 16, 2018 1:04PM EDT

VICTORIA -- The Green party will not run a candidate against NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in the riding of Burnaby South.

Green Leader Elizabeth May says the decision is an extension of a "leader's courtesy," a long-standing Canadian parliamentary tradition that facilitates a newly elected party leader's entry to the House of Commons in an unopposed byelection.

She says in a statement the Greens believe it is right to step aside to allow the leader of "an important part of the political spectrum" to serve in Parliament.

Singh announced his candidacy for the federal riding after New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart indicated he was stepping aside to run for mayor of Vancouver.

The Liberal and Conservative parties have not announced candidates in the riding, but the Liberals have said they will contest the byelection.

May received the leader's courtesy in 2008 when then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion chose not to run a candidate against her in Central Nova. She extended the same gesture to Dion.

In 2002, the Liberals and Conservatives stepped aside for Stephen Harper when he ran in a byelection held shortly after he became leader of the Canadian Alliance.

No date has been set for a byelection.

Singh sat in Ontario's legislature and served as the provincial NDP's deputy leader before he replaced Tom Mulcair as the federal leader.

( this article raises the possibility that the liberals won't even call the Burnaby South by election until 2019 , instead of this fall )

Putting off byelections until 2019 could help Liberals: strategists

By Laura Ryckewaert Aug. 20, 2018

Two ridings are officially vacant—Outremont, Que., and Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, Ont.—and two more, in Burnaby South, B.C. and York-Simcoe, Ont., will be by the end of September.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, will soon have to make a call on when to hold a number of federal byelections, with four federal seats set to be vacant by the end of September. That includes Burnaby South, where new NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has opted to make his bid for a seat in the House of Commons. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade

Four federal ridings will soon be vacant, and strategists say putting off the byelections to fill them—including Burnaby South, B.C., where NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will fight for a seat in the Commons—would be to the Liberals’ advantage. “If I were the Liberals I would not hold that byelection [Burnaby South] before Christmas. No rush for them to call it, especially since [NDP MP Kennedy Stewart] hasn’t even resigned yet, and that would also put the NDP in

( singh is facing significant backlash in Saskatchewan over his decision to kick an ndp mp out of caucus )

Jagmeet Singh digging himself a deep hole

By Thomas WalkomNational Affairs Columnist

Mon., Sept. 10, 2018

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh has opened a new can of worms. His decision to bar sitting MP Erin Weir from contesting the NDP nomination in his own riding has sparked an open revolt in the Saskatchewan wing of the party.

“There’s a lot of outrage,” former Saskatchewan NDP MP Lorne Nystrom, a 32-year veteran of the Commons, told me in a telephone interview Friday.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s decision to bar sitting MP Erin Weir from contesting the NDP nomination in his own riding has alienated many of the party faithful.

“A lot of people who are solid social democrats say they won’t work for the federal party. Some say they won’t even vote for the federal party.”

Nystrom is one of 68 high-profile Saskatchewan New Democrats who signed a letter to Singh taking him to task for, in effect, banishing Weir from the party.

The signatories include all 13 former New Democrat MPs from Saskatchewan as well as 55 former provincial NDP MLAs.

They say the process that led to Weir’s ouster from the federal NDP caucus in February for alleged sexual harassment, as well as the subsequent decision to bar him from running as a New Democrat in next year’s federal election, was fundamentally flawed and patently unfair.

“A fair and objective examination of the details involved simply does not support either the leader’s (Singh’s) characterization of the conduct complained of or the extreme harshness of the public shaming and banishment,” wrote Patricia Atkinson, a former cabinet minister in two NDP provincial governments, in a separate letter sent to members of the federal caucus.

Indeed, the Weir affair is almost theatre of the absurd. It began in late January when Weir was accused by fellow NDP MP Christine Moore of harassing unnamed women. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, political leaders have become terrified of such charges, even those that are unfounded.

Singh almost immediately suspended Weir from caucus and ordered an investigation of the charges. Alas, no one had levied a first-hand complaint so Singh’s office went searching for someone who would.

Eventually four complainants were found, three of whom said that Weir stood too close to them when conversing and didn’t know when to shut up, while one said the MP had once spoken angrily to her.

Singh was willing to bring Weir back into the fold if he apologized contritely but changed his mind when the Regina MP dared to publicly defend himself against one of the four.

Still, Weir kept trying to get back into the leader’s good graces. He spent time taking sensitivity training and apparently passed the course. But Singh said that still wasn’t enough.

If things were going swimmingly for Singh, none of this might much matter.

But the mishandling of the Weir affair comes at a time when the new leader’s stock is not high within key elements of the party.

“People just see him as ineffective,” said Nystrom. “The Erin Weir case has brought this to the fore.

The former MP cited Singh’s difficulty in distancing himself from Sikh terrorists (which he eventually did) as well as what he called as the leader’s lightweight approach to issues.

“I went to one of Singh’s meetings in Regina and was totally underwhelmed,” Nystrom said. “Someone asked him about the economy and he ended up talking about love and courage.”

All of that might be forgiven if the NDP under Singh was doing well, but it is not. The party has done badly in every byelection since Singh became leader, particularly in Quebec.

Its fundraising has dried up. In the media, it is almost invisible. And now, in the province usually regarded as the birthplace of the NDP, there is the Erin Weir imbroglio.

“As long as Singh’s there, I won’t be involved in the federal party,’ said Nystrom. “I will not donate.”

“I can’t see myself voting against the party, but I won’t be involved.”

He said that when the federal election rolls around next year, he won’t even put up an NDP lawn sign.

Personally, I now think that the worst thing that could happen to the NDP is for Singh to win his seat in Burnaby.

I thought he was the best choice in the field running for the leadership. I still do. Of course, I expected him to be more certain of himself. He is certainly presentable and able.

The party also suffers from the spending of the former prosecutor Tom Mulcair -- who you might think knows how to read the rules and follow them ... I don't know how that one worked out, but there were some $millions involved ...

The point is -- they're in a financial bind as well as saddled with a Sikh nationalist as their leader -- not the multicultural Canadian they thought.

Federal NDP MPs are beset by languishing poll numbers, poor finances and the growing pains of new leadership as they arrive in British Columbia this week for a three-day strategy session ahead of the return of Parliament this fall.

The MPs are meeting in one of the two provinces the NDP governs − the other being Alberta, where federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is at odds with Premier Rachel Notley over the Trans Mountain pipeline. His position is in sync with that of B.C. Premier John Horgan.

The federal party, however, is back in its traditional third-place position in the polls after being within sight of victory during the 2015 election campaign.

NDP caucus chair Matthew Dubé acknowledges that all is not well for the party Mr. Singh, who is seeking a parliamentary seat in a coming by-election in Surrey, has led since last fall.

“No one’s afraid of admitting there are challenges and things we need to work on,” he said.

But Mr. Dubé said he is hoping that Mr. Singh’s first summer on the barbecue circuit − as well as caucus time in ridings − may have provided fodder for the leader and MPs to work with in meetings that run from Tuesday to Thursday at a hotel in Surrey, southeast of Vancouver.

“We’re coming out of a year where we had just elected a new leader. We’re in a position where we can begin to capitalize on that. I think we’re finding our groove when it comes to the issues we need to work on.”

Nathan Cullen, a veteran NDP MP from B.C., said the caucus gathering represents a kind of political do-or-die moment.

By Thursday, he said the caucus has to make smart, strategic choices about what the next year, leading to the 2019 federal election, looks like in terms of where voters are now and where they will be on voting day.

“There’s a potential for a reset. We’ve had a good and not-good year,” said Mr. Cullen, who endorsed Mr. Singh during the 2017 leadership race.

In an interview, Mr. Cullen said electing Mr. Singh was good, and that the party has been building up staff and been on the right side of such issues as the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

The bad, he said, has included an inevitably challenging transition to new leadership, and problems handling the #MeToo environment. He referred to the situation around Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir. Mr. Singh recently said Mr. Weir can’t seek re-election as a New Democrat given allegations of harassing behaviour that got him kicked out of caucus last spring. Sixty-seven former NDP MPs and MLAs from Saskatchewan have now written to all NDP members of Parliament, accusing Mr. Singh of denying Mr. Weir due process and unfairly maligning his character, while flouting the party’s constitutional rules for dealing with harassment complaints.

Mr. Dubé expects some in caucus, during meetings, will want to comment on the Weir situation. Mr. Cullen doubts there will be much discussion on Mr. Weir. “Do I think it will be a distraction? I don’t think so. Maybe for some of our prairie folks.” However, discussion of the issue, he says, takes away from time talking about broader issues relevant to Canadians.

“I’m hoping the caucus will be in the mood for a clear vision and I am hoping that’s what we build in the few days we have in Surrey.”

The party is also facing financial challenges, with newly released documents showing the NDP’s fundraising fell last year. It raised less than $5-million in 2017, and ended the year in the red. The party says ownership of the Jack Layton building in Ottawa actually brings the financial balance into positive territory.

A recent Nanos Research survey showed federal NDP support at less than 16 per cent, well behind the Liberals and Conservatives, and down from 20 per cent in late 2017.

“It’s a little too early to press the panic button because support for the NDP now is where support for the NDP has been historically, which is the mid-teens,” pollster Nik Nanos said in an interview.

OTTAWA – NDP Leader and MP-hopeful Jagmeet Singh is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quickly call byelections in the handful of ridings where there are current or soon-to-be vacancies, including the constituency he plans to run in.

When asked by Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Question Period, whether he was worried the Liberals could delay calling the byelection for months to put off his potential ability to get into the House, Singh said what concerned him was that Canadians in five ridings across Canada currently don’t have an MP or will soon lose one.

“I’m worried about the fact that the people of Burnaby South and in fact the four other byelections don’t have representation. I’m worried about the fact that they deserve to have representation and this government is not calling the byelection or letting us know when they are going to call it,” Singh said.

Jagmeet Singh
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on CTV's Question Period.

He announced last month that he intends to run for a seat in Burnaby South, in a yet-to-be announced federal byelection, hoping to take over from outgoing NDP MP Kennedy Stewart.

There are currently five ridings where byelections are expected:
• Leeds-Grenville, Ont., previously held by Conservative MP Gord Brown, who died unexpectedly in May;
• Outremont, Que., previously held by NDP MP Tom Mulcair, who officially vacated his seat in August;
• Burnaby South, B.C., previously held by NDP MP Kennedy Stewart, who resigned his seat effective on Friday;
• York-Simcoe, Ont., which is still held by Conservative MP Peter Van Loan, but will be vacant effective Sept. 30 when he’s announced he’ll be resigning; and
• Saint-Léonard-Saint-Michel, Que., which is still held by Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio, who has said he’s leaving for family reasons but has yet to officially do so.

Once a vacancy is official, the prime minister has up to 180 days to call a byelection, which in the case of the Leeds-Grenville riding will have to be very soon.

Though, Trudeau could take months to call the other four, the dates for which have to be 36 days after the campaign has been called.

In the past, byelections have been put off and wrapped into the general election when they came up too close to the Canada-wide campaign.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, front left, is flanked by NDP MPs as he responds to questions after a three-day NDP caucus national strategy session in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday September 13, 2018. Federal political parties are gearing up for the final parliamentary session before the next election but while the Conservatives and the Liberals tout having candidates nominated and money in the bank the NDP has yet to nominate a single candidate.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA — Federal political parties are gearing up for the final parliamentary session before the next election, but while the Conservatives and the Liberals tout having many candidates nominated and money in the bank, the NDP has yet to nominate a single candidate.

NDP president Mathieu Vick says the party revamped its nomination process over the summer and the new rules came into effect about two weeks ago. Those rules were approved and distributed to ridings at the beginning of the month and nomination meetings are now being scheduled.

"We're just now starting to have all of our nomination dates up, so we're hoping to have all of our incumbents at the very least nominated by the end of 2018 and then hopefully in the new year we can get a bunch more," he said.

The NDP convention in Surrey, B.C., last week was an opportunity for members to talk strategy and Vick said the party is "feeling pretty good."

He said he's hoping the retreat was a launching pad to intensify the party's efforts, rally troops and get the ground game going, saying that the NDP has success "at the doorstep." He also said the NDP has launched a volunteering recruitment campaign and overall he's feeling "energized" about 2019.

Vick acknowledged that the party has had some financial challenges but insisted things are looking up.

The NDP's annual fundraising returns show the party pulled in $4.86 million from 39,053 donors last year. The Tories raised $18.84 million from 94,786 contributors in 2017, outflanking the Liberals by nearly $5 million.

Meanwhile 25 Liberal incumbents, including Leader Justin Trudeau, have been nominated as candidates for the next election, plus one new contender. The Liberal party has declared that all 183 of its MPs will be acclaimed without having to win nomination contests in their ridings, provided they meet certain fundraising, membership and voter engagement targets by Oct. 1.

And the Conservatives have nominated 133 candidates, including 46 non-incumbent candidates.

Hamish Marshall, the Tories 2019 campaign chair, said the party is doing "really well."

"We're aggressively nominating candidates and we'll be increasing that through the fall," he said.

While the federal Liberals have made it known that they are planning on painting Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer as "Stephen Harper 2.0", the Tories are holding their branding cards close, and say they are not too worried about the Liberal strategy.

"It's a difficult thing...making arguments based on history or projecting backwards," said Marshall.

He said the Tories will focus on the government's failures rather than debating whether someone is like somebody else. And while the Conservatives branded Trudeau as "just not ready" in the last election, Marshall hinted there would be a fresh approach for 2019.

Singh has to win in Burnaby or his own caucus will turn on him. By all accounts, things are not going well on the ground

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh walks around in Burnaby, B.C., on Sept. 15, 2018. Singh is the party's candidate in the Burnaby-South byelection.Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

John Ivison
John Ivison

September 18, 2018
8:59 PM EDT

Filed under
Canadian Politics

The concept of “leader’s courtesy” may be about to make a come-back. It might sound as quaint and old-fashioned as monacles and top-hats but it is simply a form of parliamentary etiquette that means other parties don’t run candidates in byelections in which a rival party leader is running.

Green leader Elizabeth May has already extended the courtesy to NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, in the forthcoming byelection for the vacant seat of Burnaby South in British Columbia. Liberals say privately they are mulling the idea but no decision has been taken.

The idea has fallen into abeyance in some quarters but one Liberal pointed out the party did not run a candidate against Stephen Harper when he ran in a byelection as Canadian Alliance leader in Calgary Southwest in 2002; or against Stockwell Day when he was the Alliance leader in the Okanagan-Coquihalla in 2000; or when Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark launched his parliamentary come-back in Nova Scotia’s Kings-Hants riding in the same year.

Somewhat spoiling their reputation as the boy scouts of Canadian politics, the Grits did run candidate Glen Pearson against May in a byelection in London, Ont., in 2006 (the Liberals subsequently pulled their candidate from running against the Green leader in a Nova Scotia seat in the 2008 election).

But the Liberal Party could make a legitimate case for not fielding a candidate in Burnaby – “in order to allow the full spectrum of political opinion to be represented in the People’s House …etc, etc…”

Forgive a disposition of disbelief at the sincerity of goodness in human nature but close observation of politics over an extended number of years has confirmed the suspicion that its proponents are mostly sharks, circling in the water for traces of blood. Courtesy to political opponents is the last thing on anybody’s mind.

The fact that the Liberals are already lining up their excuses suggests they have no intention of seriously contesting the Burnaby South byelection.

If that is the case, it is a decision that is likely to have far-reaching consequences.
Singh has to win in Burnaby or his own caucus will turn on him. By all accounts, things are not going well on the ground. A CBC report showed how few people on the street even recognized him, given he has no connection to the riding other than the desire to be its elected representative.

The federal and provincial parties will pour resources into the riding won in 2015 by 500 or so votes by New Democrat, Kennedy Stewart, who is now bidding to become Vancouver’s mayor.

But Singh is clearly in danger of losing the byelection and his leadership, if the Liberals run a strong, well-known local candidate.

Liberal Party spokesman, Braeden Caley, said a number of community leaders have expressed interest but there is no nomination process in place yet, given the seat was only vacated in the past couple of days.

The wider significance is clear in the national opinion polling. The Liberals have created a significant lead in recent weeks, after polls in early summer suggested they were neck and neck with the Conservatives. A break from the daily political water-torture of Parliament and the defeat of the hapless Wynne Liberals in Ontario has done wonders for Liberal support. Even if the bloom has come off Justin Trudeau’s rose, voters are not flocking to either opposition party.

Crucially for the Liberals, who won the last general election by dominating the left of centre vote, they need a weak NDP – and Singh appears to be delivering.

From praising the late Republican senator, John McCain, to continuing to oppose the re-integration of former caucus member, Erin Weir, Singh is facing challenges in unifying and electrifying New Democrats.

His principle line of attack is that the Liberals have promised much but not delivered. It may yet catch fire – signs of disillusionment with Trudeau’s leadership are apparent everywhere, not least in his own caucus where floor-crosser Leona Alleslev is only the most obvious manifestation of discontent.

But the most progressive Canadian prime minister in 50 years clearly does not fear Singh – except perhaps when it comes to emerging fashion brands.

It suits Trudeau’s purpose to keep New Democrat support to its rump in the mid-teens, allowing him to pursue his activist agenda to turn Canada into a more egalitarian country by government fiat.

Singh is key to that plan, which is why he is likely to be extended the courtesy of a clear run in the byelection by the Liberals. The irony is, for exactly the same reasons, the Conservatives will be running flat out to beat him.

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